Year End List: #1 Album I Should Have Coverd This Year-Big Troubles's Worry

There were mountains of great, no, incredible albums that I missed this year. Right at the beginning Spoon released another sublime of their minimalist indie/garage rock. LCD Soundsystem left the world on the greatest high note with This is Happening. My personal favorite and buds Titus Andronicus, while I did post some mp3s never got the album review The Monitor deserved (newsflash: it's fucking incredible). One of my favorite bands of all time, Arcade Fire, released their rightfully massive third album The Suburbs which has held a very special place next my heart and ear buds. However, all those albums were massively covered, so I don't feel like too bad they didn't lose another good review. There was though, one band that released a particularly excellent album that should have gotten more coverage from me but didn't. There name is Big Troubles and their album Worry is a mini shoegaze masterpiece.

I honestly wish I had some valid excuse as to why I did not pick up on Worry sooner, but I don't. I had gotten several tracks from comps and mp3s that made me like the band, but for some reason I didn't give the band the attention they deserved. Now as I sit here typing this, listening to it through my headphones I can see how wrong I am. It's hard exactly to explain why the shoegaze that Big Trouble do rises higher than the current excess of shoegaze that surrounds it in the indie scene. I think it's do to the fact that the has heavily evident pop hooks and melodies, plus a sense of fun built into them before the band bathes them in that warm layer of fuzz and distortion. "Video Rock", the track that opens the album could very well be a My Bloody Valentine track before the band derezzes the guitar line and puts it back together. "Bite Yr Tongue" and "Freudelin Ships" have a nice surf rock backdrop to them, though not in a way that ruins the songs. It's a wonderful swirl (an adjective that should describe any good shoegaze album) of metaphorical color exploding around your head, almost as if No Age had decided to eat a bunch of candy and decided to make twee and jangle pop album.

Worry is just an exceptional album, and Big Troubles is an exceptional band. I promise to myself and all reads of this blog, I will not pass them over the next these guys decided to release anything.



Links:

Big Troubles on Myspace
Buy Worry here, from Olde English Spelling Bee

Honorable Mentions for Albums I Should Have Covered:

Arcade Fire-The Suburbs

Deerhunter-Halcyon Digest

Titus Andronicus-The Monitor

LCD Soundsystem-This Is Happening

Spoon-Transference

Of Montreal-False Priest

Broken Bells-S/T

Magic Kids-Summer

Broken Water-Whet

Xiu Xiu-Dear God, I Hate Myself

Tyvek-Nothing Fits

Cinema Red and Blue-S/T

Gobble Gobble-(OK, I don't think he did release an official album, but I should have covered him period)